# Multi-scale modeling of lymphatic vasculature growth and adaptation

> **NIH NIH R01** · GEORGIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY · 2022 · $593,853

## Abstract

The lymphatic vasculature provides crucial functions for the maintenance of homeostasis in a variety of tissues
and organs by providing the primary route through which immune cells, large proteins, lipids, and interstitial
fluid are returned to the blood circulation. This requires the movement of fluid up adverse pressure gradients, a
process that is achieved primarily through the intrinsic contractility of individual contractile units known as
lymphangions. Lymphatic pump failure has been implicated in a variety of disease processes including
lymphedema, congestive heart failure, transplant rejection, and neurological disorders. All of these processes
involve the growth and remodeling (G&R) of lymphatics as they adapt to changes directly from injury or to
changes in the fluid demand placed on them. These processes are quite complex involving molecular
mechanisms that adapt lymphatic function and structure across very short (seconds) and long (weeks) time
scales. These changes that occur at the cellular level alter pump function of individual vessels at the tissue
level, and ultimately could affect pump performance of the entire lymphatic network. Thus a multiscale model
that recapitulates these changes at the cellular level, integrating both the biological and mechanical variables
important to the cell response, and then predicts their impact on the entire lymphatic network will be crucial to
understanding disease progression and developing new therapies to restore lymphatic function. This proposal
seeks to develop such a model, through a collaborative effort of three co-PIs with complementary expertise,
utilizing both experiments and novel approaches in computational modeling. This will be achieved in the
following four Specific Aims: 1) Develop and characterize multiscale model of lymphangion G&R. This
model will describe G&R processes at the cellular level using a constrained mixture approach of the various
constituents that make of the vessel and the couple this into a lumped parameter model of long lymphangion
chains. 2) Develop and characterize a computational G&R fluid-structure-interaction (FSI) model of a
lymphatic valve. This model will develop an approach for capturing valve G&R processes through a coupled
constrained mixture model of valve growth with a FSI model of complex fluid-valve interactions. 3)
Incorporation of computational models of non-mechanically mediated growth. This aim will develop a
model of lymphangion growth driven by non-mechanically mediated factors coupled into the constitutive model
of mechanically mediated growth. 4) Validation of computational models with a large animal experimental
model relevant to human physiology. In humans, gravity is the primary mechanical load that the lymphatic
system must overcome; this load is absent in small animal models. Thus the computational models of G&R will
be benchmarked against a novel ligation model of the lymphatic in the leg of a sheep. Together this work will
provide a...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10413145
- **Project number:** 5R01HL152152-03
- **Recipient organization:** GEORGIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
- **Principal Investigator:** Alexander Alexeev
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $593,853
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2020-05-12 → 2024-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10413145

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10413145, Multi-scale modeling of lymphatic vasculature growth and adaptation (5R01HL152152-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10413145. Licensed CC0.

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